FCC veteran Vaughan, architect of spectrum auctions, dies at 64
December 19 2008 - 12:19 pm ET | Jeffrey Silva | RCR Wireless News
Gerald P. (Jerry) Vaughan, 64, a retired veteran of the Federal Communications Commission who helped launch the first spectrum auctions, died Dec. 6 at his summer home in Pennsylvania of an apparent heart attack.
The FCC said Vaughan worked at the commission for more than 30 years, holding top posts and receiving government recognition — including a Presidential Rank Award in 1995 — along the way. Vaughan, who headed the FCC’s wireless telecom bureau when he retired in 2004 and before that served as deputy chief of the then common carrier bureau, led the team that developed the spectrum auction program in the mid-1990s. The program increased wireless competition and brought billions of dollars into the U.S. Treasury. The FCC auctions team was presented with a Hammer Award for reinventing government initiatives by then-vice president Al Gore in 1994.
Vaughan was a Vietnam veteran, where he served in 1968 as a rifle platoon leader in the First Infantry Division, U.S. Army. He was a decorated combat veteran who was awarded several combat awards including the Purple Heart. He was a 1966 graduate of the University of Scranton. Vaughan is survived by his wife, Gloria, and daughter, Noel. The funeral was held Dec. 13 St. Joseph’s Church in Scranton, Pa.
January 7, 2009 05:40 pm
Prisoner rights,Correctional Officers not doing their jobs!!!!!!! Well for those who have never worked in a penal institution,I think you should not talk what you don't know. I think that the bigger problem is the people not wanting the prison system to do their job,seems the inmate population has more rights than the average person on the street.Cell phones are getting smaller and smaller,give the system and the officers the resources and equipment they need to do their jobs and find and/or detect those SMALL cell phones.SHERIFF.JOE ARPAIO(AZ) should head all Penal Institutions,he uses his head in thinking of the citizen and military personel of this great country.Our young men and women,husbands and wives,are they fighting and dying for an inmates' right to have an ILLEGAL cell phone behind bars? I would hate to think that my friends and family members are losing their lives for such a right.What about our rights as law abiding citizens to be protected,that's what prison walls are for,RIGHT,to protected us from the criminals.With the technology this country has,there is someway to render a cell phone inside a prison facility useless.I think the people that CRY the most about rights' violations are the ones doing the most ILLEGAL things!We as citizens have the right to be feel protected and safe!I would not want some convict calling me in the middle of the night,threatening me or my family or whatever kind of trouble they could cause by using these ILLEGAL CELL PHONE! If you have never worked in this type of field,think of those of us who do and the risk we take everyday for your rights to feel safe and secure in your home.Those officers(some of them your family/friends)'we are considered the enemy to these inmates.Cell phones inside the prison walls also put us in dangerous or potentially situations,to be followed,harmed or even KILLED!. So when some of you complain of rights........................................ THINK ABOUT US!!!!!!!!